Chapter 418

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AN ACT FURTHER PROTECTING VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows:
SECTION 1. Section 7 of chapter 209A of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2004 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the seventh paragraph the following paragraph:-

Where a defendant has been found in violation of an abuse prevention order under this chapter or a protection order issued by another jurisdiction, the court may, in addition to the penalties provided for in this section after conviction, as an alternative to incarceration and, as a condition of probation, prohibit contact with the victim through the establishment of court defined geographic exclusion zones including, but not limited to, the areas in and around the complainant’s residence, place of employment, and the complainant’s child’s school, and order that the defendant to wear a global positioning satellite tracking device designed to transmit and record the defendant’s location data. If the defendant enters a court defined exclusion zone, the defendant’s location data shall be immediately transmitted to the complainant, and to the police, through an appropriate means including, but not limited to, the telephone, an electronic beeper or a paging device. The global positioning satellite device and its tracking shall be administered by the department of probation. If a court finds that the defendant has entered a geographic exclusion zone, it shall revoke his probation and the defendant shall be fined, imprisoned or both as provided in this section. Based on the defendant’s ability to pay, the court may also order him to pay the monthly costs or portion thereof for monitoring through the global positioning satellite tracking system.

SECTION 2. The commissioner of probation shall submit reports to the joint committee on the judiciary and the house and senate committees on ways and means every 6 months following the effective date of this act, which reports shall detail the feasibility of conducting the program set forth in section 1 based on the resources and technology in existence and operational within the department of probation. Section 1 shall not be implemented unless the commissioner submits such a report with a determination that the necessary resources and technology exist and are operational within the department of probation to conduct the program. Following such a determination by the commissioner, the reporting requirement of this section shall cease.